It is desirable to mount a seat belt retractor in a vehicle door so that the belt is automatically moved between an occupant access position and an occupant restraining position upon movement of the door between the open and closed positions. It is also desirable that such seat belt retractors employ a lock bar which is actuated by a pendulum so that the reel is locked against belt unwinding rotation in response to a sensed condition of vehicle deceleration.
A shortcoming of the aforedescribed door mounted pendulum actuated retractor is that a rapid movement of the door in the door opening direction can result in an acceleration condition which causes the pendulum to actuate the lock bar and lock the reel against belt unwinding.
Prior patents, such as Giffen et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,040,645, teach the provision of a mechanism which holds the lock bar in the unlocked condition when the door is being opened.